小米 (xiǎo mǐ) — millet (Setaria italica)

Definition

noun

millet (Setaria italica)

Measure word · 颗

小米。
Běi fāng rén cháng bǎ xiǎo mǐ áo chéng zhōu hē.
Northerners often cook millet into porridge.
小米。
Zhè zhǒng xiǎo mǐ de yíng yǎng jià zhí hěn gāo.
This kind of millet has high nutritional value.
小米。
Nóng mín zài tián lǐ zhǒng le yí dà piàn xiǎo mǐ.
The farmer planted a large field of millet.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

小 means small and 米 means grain, naming the small-grained cereal millet.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

米 is a picture of rice kernels without husk, with the horizontal stroke as a bamboo sieve. It is unrelated to similar-looking grain characters.